Friday, November 29, 2013

Sakha Cuisine

I have followed Bolot on twitter now for a few years @yakutia, I enjoy learning about life in Yakutia Siberia. The pretty countryside, the cold climate, the smiles of the kids in the city, and the day to day life. Bolot is a journalist and loves sharing the stories of his people. I have asked him a few times for a food post and here it is.

I will now hand you over to Bolot :-)

Sometimes, it's so hard to describe what we consider to be ordinary.

Usually, I just eat and don't pay attention to details. Here's the list of obligatory Sakha cuisine to be included in the feast menu.

Oyogos (young horse ribs). Ribs might be cut in 10 cm or 3-4 cm pieces with flesh-and-fat. It's wrapped in foil and put into an oven for 40-45 min. It might be served with cranberries or cucumbers or pickles. Before the oven, ribs might filled with carrots and garlics and covered with salt, pepper, mustard, or mayonnaise.

Khaan (white blood sausage). Bolied intestines filled with horse/cow blood, horse milk, and spices. The khaan depicted in the photo is not made with fresh milk, so it doesn't look white.

or served this way:

Boiled intestines . They are boiled and served in the cold condition. With onions, fennel or parsley.

Yakutia

Sliced frozen liver

Boiled reindeer/horse tongue

Horse and reindeer tongue

Siberian crucians in any form:

Of course, stroganina and Indigirka salad are a must.

Yakutian Horse

Reindeer meat recipes

There are many, but my mom's favourites are:

1. Reindeer meat under the coat. Known also as sorkhaan. It's when the meat without bones are soaked with mayonnaise or sour cream, pepper, onion, garlic. Wrapped in foil. Put into the oven for 40 minutes.

2. Lazy dumplings. Ground-meat is wrapped into flat dough in such a way that it should look like a tube with circled meat layers. Sliced into thin circles. Boil them.

3. Jelly made out of the reindeer leg and w/ reindeer toungue. In the following photo, you can see with reindeer meat only.

Yakutsk

My best is reindeer meat basturma.

Ingredients:

reindeer meat, 350 gram

wine vinegar, 2 soup spoon

bay leaf

allspice (powder) pepper

salt

onion

fennel or parsley, 2 teaspoon

2 slices of lemon

Reindeer meat should be soaked with all listed ingredients and put in the fridge for 2-3 days.

After marinaded, it's put on a pan. Fried. It should become dark brown, but not burned and flesh in the middle, w/ some blood.

Served with fennel or parsley on a cabbage leaf. Decorated with lemon slice.

For more about Yakutia, Siberia be sure to follow along with Bolot, he's a devoted father and all round fun guy proud of where he comes from.